47-year-old Helena, a social worker, was neutralized or sterilized against her will as a young woman.
She is one of four Czech Roma victims of forced sterilization who tell their stories in a play titled "Stories That (Never) Begin".
The play premiered in Ostrava, a Czech city with a large Roma community. The systematic sterilization of Roma women without their full and informed consent to reduce high birth rates - was a state policy in the former Czechoslovakia under communism.
The practice was officially discontinued in 1993, but according to information from the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), the practice continued throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the last known case in the Czech Republic in 2007.
For more than 10 years, Elena has been active in the Roma women group that has put this issue on the agenda and successfully fought to stop forced sterilization in the Czech Republic.
They also seek compensation for what has been done to them. "But it's not just about money. It is about recognizing that our rights have been violated, ”says Elena.
